Love Meets No Boundaries
by playingthe-blamegame
Summary: Meredith Grey had what some people would describe as 'The Perfect Life'. She had an amazing family and a great job. But what happens when a man from her past moves to Seattle, but not just any man - Derek Shepherd; her former best friend, ex-boyfriend and the love of her life. Will things go smoothly for them? Because after all, does true love meet any boundaries? AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: First attempt at a MerDer story, so be kind people. I really want feedback on this.**

**Now, this is a complete AU of… actually I don't know what season, I suppose some could say 1, but then you could also say 9, so, it's my own made up season really. But the hospital is SGMW, so Apple Jacks are there. No Izzie or George in this, Arizona and everyone are there… except Derek but that will be explained. Mer and Cristina etc. are fellows, and Lexie is a fifth year resident. As usual, flashbacks are italics. But I think you would figure that out anyway, okay, now I'm rambling, on with the story… **

* * *

"_So what are you saying then?" Derek shouted at the woman opposite him in the small living room of their apartment in New York._

"_I'm saying what I said before; I accepted the place at Washington State, Derek." Meredith shouted back at him. _

"_Well you could have at least told me you were considering taking it before coming home to me and telling me that you decided that you're moving across the country." Derek shouted angrily._

"_Why is that such a bad thing? Washington State is one of the best med schools in the country, and that way I can experience what life is like in a different state. I can't spend my whole life here in New York." Meredith said calmly. _

"_It's a bad thing because I'm here and you'll be there, Meredith, I'm at NYU, Mark's at Columbia, Lexie will still be here, your whole family is here. You'll be all alone there Meredith." Derek said, his voice rising.  
"I don't care Derek; I need to experience new things, my family will always be here, I can always come back to visit, I need to do this, I need to find out who I am." Meredith screamed. _

"_So, you could experience them here; find out who you are here." Derek screamed, watching helplessly as the tears streamed down her face. _

_The room went silent, and tears fell down Meredith's face and Derek had to ball his fists to avoid punching through the wall in anger._

"_So what are you trying to say then, Meredith?" Derek demanded after a few minutes of silence._

"_I'm saying I'm leaving and you're staying. Goodbye, Derek." Meredith said, picking up her bag and walking out of the door of their – his – apartment, tears streaming down her face and mixing with the New York rain as she walked away from her life - all that she knew being left behind._

* * *

"I have five rules; memorise them. Rule number one, don't bother sucking up. I already hate you, that's not gonna change. Two, nurses will page you and you answer every page at a run. Rule number three; if I'm sleeping, don't wake me unless a patient is actually dying and the dying patient better not be dead when I get there, because not only would you have killed someone, you would have woken me up for no good reason. And five, when I move, you move." Meredith said sternly to the new group of interns, who trailed behind her as she walked quickly down the corridor.

Meredith turned and a smile graced her delicate features, she was a fellow now and she could torture interns more than she could when she was a resident. The flustered interns trailed behind her, scrawling everything and anything onto their tiny notepads.  
Her pager began to bleep wildly, and grabbing the offending item from her lab coat pocket she saw several messages from several different people all reading the same thing- '911 ER'. Shoving the black device back into her pocket, she broke out into a run towards the ER, her interns running behind her and panting for breath.

Upon arrival, she immediately jumped into action; she pulled on a trauma gown and ran into one of the trauma rooms, following the paramedic whose gurney held an unconscious woman with her skull almost smashed in and blood running and clotting down her face.

"What happened here?" Meredith asked Matt, the paramedic as she shone her torch into the woman's non-responsive eyes.

"Boyfriend beat her, unconscious on scene, pupil's unresponsive and she coded once en-route." Matt told her, and Meredith immediately pulled the barriers on the bed up and flipped the brakes off of the wheels.

"Okay, someone page Hunt or Kepner and tell them to meet me in OR 3." Meredith commanded, and two of the nurses began to help her to wheel the bed out of the room and to the OR floor elevator, while her interns remained standing in the middle of the ER, and as the doors of the elevator closed her first thought was that today was going to be one from hell.

* * *

"I'm dead on my feet, I'm not even joking. I feel like death warmed up." Cristina said, as she slammed down her lunch tray onto the table, making April jump out of her seat as she collapsed into the chair and dropped her head over the back, groaning at the relief that such a simple action bought her neck.

"One too many surgeries, Yang, can't you take the heat?" Jackson teased from his place next to April, and the red-head laughed at his obviously sarcastic comment.

"Oh suck it Avery, at least my surgeries aren't just tummy tucks and boob jobs," Cristina snapped back, though Jackson remained unfazed by the comment, used to the comments from Cristina about his speciality.

"Hey, not everything in plastics is tummy tucks and boob jobs, 70% of the surgeries actually change people's lives." April argued, and each of the fellows shared a knowing grin at the red-heads behaviour.

"Defending your boyfriend's honour, Kepner?" Cristina teased, and April's cheeks turned a furious red, the colour of her cheeks almost matching the colour of her hair.

"Oh come off your high horse, Yang, just because you and Hunt are still living in the honeymoon phase and screwing like bunnies everywhere and anywhere, it doesn't mean you can insult other people's sex lives." Alex defended, and all of the others turned to him, shocked to hear him actually defend April and not offend her like he usually does. Even April herself looked at the paed's fellow questioningly.

"Whoa, Evil Spawn, what's making you all defensive of Kepner and oh-so-sappy?" Cristina quipped.

"Nothing," Alex replied, his reply too fast for it to be true.

"Oh there's definitely something," Jackson said, looking at Alex curiously.

"Who is she, Alex? Does she work here?" Meredith asked; her chin propped up on her hand, her elbow resting on the table as she stared down her friend.

"She's no-one, okay?" Alex snapped; his eyes locked on the table, avoiding his friends' curious gazes.

"So that means there is someone right?" Cristina pried; determination in her voice but the edge of sarcasm still remaining.

Alex looked up, and caught the eye of every single one of his friends, "I really hate you, and you all know that right?" He huffed, before standing up and leaving, grumbling to himself as he walked away.

"Oh, there is so totally someone." April exclaimed, a wide grin on her face.

"Yeah, there totally is, and I will so find out who she is," Cristina said determinedly.

"I'm right there with you…" Meredith mumbled, and all four fellows looked up when a crashing sound entered the cafeteria.

Mark Sloan came barrelling through the doors of the cafeteria, spluttering and panting for breath, Lexie not too far behind him in the same state. Both reached the table at the same time, and placed their hands on it to regain their breath and steady themselves. Meredith, Cristina, April and Jackson all sent the plastic's attending and fifth-year resident curious looks, wondering what it was that had them so flustered.

"Mer-" Lexie said, panting.

"We really-" Mark continued.

"Need to-"

"Tell you something-"

Meredith looked at her sister and her best friend with a raised eyebrow. In all the years she had been friends with Mark she had never seen him act like this, Lexie, however, was a different story. Ever since her sister was young the brunette had a tendency to panic and ramble and not make any sense; it was just a Grey trait after all.

"Okay… and what do you need to tell me?" Meredith asked curiously.

"Well… um… you see," Mark stumbled, looking to Lexie for help.

"Someone's here, and he heard you were here and he's been asking everyone for you and we just thought we'd tell you before- oh," Lexie said quickly, though her eyes went distant and her sentence trailed off when she caught sight of someone across the cafeteria.

Mark looked up too, and his eyes displayed a look of fear; while April and Cristina looked on interested and Jackson sat confused at everything that was happening.

Meredith turned around when she saw that all of her friends were looking behind her. She turned, and she instantly wished she hadn't. Her eyes locked with his across the cafeteria, and all of the feelings from the past came rushing back. The lust, the anger, the hate and above all: the love. Everything came rushing back and hit her like a tsunami wave would a sandy beach line, and she was unaware of everything going on around her for those minutes that their eyes were locked.

Because standing across from her in the cafeteria, in navy scrubs with his perfectly wavy hair, was Derek Shepherd; her childhood best friend, her ex-boyfriend and most of all; the love of her life.

* * *

**A/N: Now, I know that my other four stories are on hiatus and that is with very good reason. They will NOT cooperate whatsoever. And I have 14 chapters already written of this, so I thought I might give you guys something to say that I'm still alive, and I will update with the other stories as soon as I can. I promise.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm really surprised at the response this got! Wow. Thanks you guys. Here's the next chapter, sorry it took so long. I'm once again really scared to post this; I find the story in itself good, I'm just apprehensive over my writing and I never know if you guys will like what happens or not…**

* * *

Run. Run now.

Those were the only thoughts that ran through Meredith's mind as she tried her hardest to avert her gaze from the man standing across the cafeteria from her.

She looked panicked to Lexie and Mark, who both had angered looks on their faces as they glared at the man from across the room. She gulped, and stood out of her chair quickly, almost falling over in the process and ran out of the cafeteria as fast as she could.

Cristina watched on curiously, along with April and Jackson, as 'her person' ran out of the cafeteria as fast as humanly possible.

"What's got her panties in a bunch?" Cristina said as a matter of factly, and received a scowl from Lexie.

"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with that hot new doctor over there." April said, tipping her head to where Derek was standing, talking to someone about something that was probably not interesting.

"Shut up, okay? You don't… just shut up." Lexie snapped angrily, and walked away in the same direction that Meredith left in, leaving behind an even more confused April, Cristina and Jackson.

"Wow… is there something in the water today or is it just the Grey sisters?" Cristina said sarcastically, and Jackson snickered quietly at the comment.

"I don't know, but it definitely has something to do with the new… and he's walking over here right now," April said, dropping her gaze to the table.

All movement on the table ceased when April spoke, and they all turned to where they saw Derek approach their table. A look of confusion was etched onto Jackson's face, while looks of awe and wonder were on April and Cristina's. Mark's face however, was a different story. Anger spread across his rugged features, and he only saw red.

Derek reached the table and the brunette male's gaze locked with his friend's – or former friend's – eyes.

"Hey, do you know where Mer-" Derek began, but was cut off immediately by Mark, and the fellows watched the exchange with anticipation.

"Don't okay? Just don't. You don't get to waltz in here and expect me to tell you where she went. You don't have that right any more, you lost that right years ago when you made the choice. You're lucky she actually ran, Derek. Because if I were her, I would be here right now shouting and screaming at you because that's what you deserve. So you know what? Go back to New York, because she's not the only person that doesn't want to see you." Mark spat angrily, his voice rising with every word, and by now pretty much every doctor and nurse in the cafeteria had stopped to watch the exchange; nurses looking for gossip and doctors just interested in the conversation.  
Mark stood up to leave when Derek spoke; causing him to stop in his tracks and turn back around.

"You know, I never thought I would see the day when Mark Sloan, man-whore, would defend a woman's honour." Derek said calmly, his voice almost icily cool.

"Yeah, and I never thought I would see the day when Derek Shepherd would willingly let the best thing that has ever happened to him walk out without so much as a fight. But that happened, and I'm a changed man now, Derek. You don't know the last thing about me." Mark whispered; and only Cristina, April and Jackson heard what he had said.

"Well then, I guess we're both changed people, Mark. Because you don't know anything about me either," Derek spat venomously.

Mark and Derek both stood for a few seconds staring at each other; Cristina, April and Jackson looking between the two arguing men curiously. Quickly, and as if on cue, each man turned and stormed out of the cafeteria through opposite doors.

"Well that was interesting." Cristina said dryly after both of the men had left, leaving behind several confused doctors and curious, gossiping nurses.

"I don't think interesting describes what just happened." Jackson added, though his mind was still trying to understand what just happened.

April nodded in agreement, "Yeah, but I think things around here are about to get a lot more interesting."

* * *

"Hey Mer. Meredith, hey, wait up," Lexie shouted to her fleeing sister.

Meredith had heard her sister's voice, though that didn't stop her fast walking pace through the corridors of the surgical floor. She didn't even know where she was going; just that she was going somewhere that wasn't the cafeteria.

"Meredith, please stop." Lexie pleaded, trailing behind her sister as she struggled to keep up with the fast pace.

Meredith turned to face her sister, and her stone expression holding in all of her feelings faded slightly when she saw the guilty look on Lexie's face.

"What?" The blonde asked a little too harshly.

"I'm sorry for not telling you," Lexie said softly.

"It wasn't your fault. You tried to tell me, he just got there quicker." Meredith said, tears pooling in the corners of her green eyes.

"I suppose," Lexie said, unconvinced.

"Hey, Grey." A voice called from the other end of the corridor, and both sisters turned to see Alex heading their way, a brunette intern that Lexie and Meredith both thought they recognised following him, though her face remained hidden in the chart in her hands.

"What, Alex?" Meredith snapped; she was not in the mood for Alex's sarcasm today.

"Heard you and that new attending caused quite a scene in the cafeteria after I left," Alex commented, a proud grin on his face at the thought of Meredith, the person like his little sister, causing a scene in the hospital.

"Do you always feel the need to be sarcastic?" Meredith exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration.

"Yes, now tell me what went on between you and that attending in the cafeteria." Alex replied, eager to know all that went on.

All throughout the exchange between Alex and her sister, Lexie had been staring at Alex's intern, who had kept her head buried in the chart throughout everything.

"Nothing happened, but I'm sure that Mark was the one to cause the scene. But, why do I need to tell you? I mean everyone will find out soon enough and I'm sure that Mark put him in his place so why do you even feel the need to ask?" Meredith said angrily.

"So you admit that something did happen." Alex said, not giving up on the subject.

"Alex, just shut up okay? Take your intern and do whatever it is that you do with interns." Lexie snapped; she could see that her sister was getting angrier and angrier by the minute and if she didn't cut into the conversation soon, somebody would get hurt.

"Oh trust me Little Grey, if I could, I would. She's not interested." Alex said, a slight tone of disappointment lacing his gruff voice.

"Nor are you from what I've heard," Meredith said smugly, seeing her opportunity to take revenge.

"What? Mark Sloan 2.0 is taken? Wow, that's a first." Lexie said, and the intern laughed, and Lexie finally recognised who she was.

"Shut up, Shepherd." Alex scolded, and his intern finally lifted her and the sisters' jaws dropped from shock.

"Amelia?" Both Meredith and Lexie said in unison.

"So you know my intern now? Who don't you know?" Alex asked, feigning surprise.

"Yeah, I know your intern, Alex. Boohoo for you." Meredith replied, and Alex and Meredith began to playfully argue once again, so Amelia had moved to stand next to Lexie.

"Are they always like this?" Amelia whispered to Lexie, who nodded in reply.

"So c'mon then, Grey, how do you know my intern?" Alex questioned.

"I grew up with her in New York," Meredith simply replied.

"Point taken, fine okay; you can have her for the day as your intern but I get one of yours – not an incompetent one – for the day." Alex said, answering the question that he knew was to come.

"Deal, who do you want?" Meredith said, happy to hand off one of her interns, because as Alex said, they're incompetent.

Alex thought carefully for a few moments, "Wilson, she's the only one that seems normal." He said; a flirtatious tone edging his voice.

"Fine, take Wilson. But you can find her for yourself," Meredith said, and Alex left to find his new intern.

"So, what are you doing here?" Lexie asked Amelia, who had a huge smile on her face.

"I'm doing my internship here." Amelia replied.

"I figured that. But why?" Lexie teased, with serious tones in her voice.

Amelia was about to reply with a witty comment when Mark's loud voice came from behind the three women, startling them all.

"Meredith, Lexie, I need to talk to you, like now." Mark shouted but stopped when he saw who was with them.

"Amelia?" Mark asked shocked, his jaw too dropping when he saw the woman standing with the two Grey's.

"Everyone acts so surprised to see me. You do realise it's only been like two months since you last saw me, right?" Amelia quipped.

"Of course I'm happy to see you, it's just- Meredith I really need to speak to you," Mark said, looking at his best friend.

"What? Why?" Meredith asked confused.

"He's looking for you." Mark told her, and all of the colour drained from her face.

"He's what? Why? He does know that I don't want a thing to do with him right?" Meredith shouted.

"I told him that. But he's not listening." Mark said, and Meredith began to hyperventilate.

"Okay, is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Amelia asked, and the other three turned to look at her.

"Derek's here," Mark said, and Amelia's face twisted into an expression of anger.

"He's what? And he actually has the nerve to want to speak to you?" Amelia shouted, and looked at Meredith when she spoke.

"Where is he? I need to knock some sense into that man; brainless fucking idiot. Thinking he has the right to demand that." Amelia said, standing up and leaving, muttering profanities about her brother as she went, causing the three others to laugh.

"Okay, I suppose I have to go, try and avoid Derek as much as possible." Meredith murmured as she left. And Mark and Lexie could only watch her go, worry etched onto each other their faces for their best friend and sister respectively.

* * *

"_Meredith, what the hell is going on?" Lexie asked as she walked into the Shepherd house with Mark by her side. They had come straight from his apartment where they were lying peacefully in his bed when they got a phone call from Kathleen telling them to 'get their asses out of bed and over to the house ASAP'. So when they walked into the house they immediately knew something was wrong when they saw everyone but Derek sitting in the living room._

"_Just sit down and I'll tell you." Meredith said sadly, her voice shaking and Lexie and Mark sat down next to a teenage Amelia, who looked worried for the woman she considered an older sister. _

"_I'm sitting down. Now, are you going to tell me what's up?" Lexie said impatiently._

_Meredith took a deep breath, and locked eyes with her sister and the few other people in the room who she came to think of as her second family. _

"_Meredith honey, tell us whatever it is," Carolyn Shepherd said, feeling nothing but worry for one of the two sisters that she came to think of as her daughters, because they spent so much time in their lives in and around the Shepherd house. _

"_I uh, I kinda really don't know how to say this," Meredith stuttered. _

"_Come on Grey, spit it out." Mark said. _

"_Yeah death, spit it out." Nancy said, and Meredith cracked a sad smile at the nickname while Carolyn sent her eldest daughter a look. _

"_Okay… uh, well, Derek and I broke up," Meredith said, and immediately there were collective gasps from around the room, Mark included. _

"_Did I just hear that right or have I been drugged and captured by the CIA?" Amelia deadpanned hoping to lighten the mood in the room. _

_Everyone laughed a little at 'Baby Shep's' comment, but then the seriousness of the situation once again immersed the room in a silence. _

"_Were you seriously telling the truth?" Kathleen, the second eldest Shepherd said, looking at Meredith and seeing the tears in the younger woman's eyes. _

"_Yeah, we broke up earlier. I have no idea where he is right now." Meredith said, tears freely falling from her green eyes. _

"_Why?" Mark asked bluntly, and the two closest people to him; Amelia and Lexie, slapped him on either arm._

"_Because… I told him that I was going to med school in Washington, finally, and well… you can figure out the rest." Meredith said sadly. _

"_What a brainless fucking idiot! Did he seriously break up with you over that? I swear, when I get my hands on that boy…" Nancy exclaimed, jumping up from the sofa and beginning to pace in anger. _

"_Nancy, sit down." Carolyn said, and her eldest daughter sat down with a muttered apology. _

"_Why did he leave, Meredith?" Carolyn pried, clasping Meredith's hand for support. _

"_He said that I hadn't discussed anything with him, so I obviously didn't care about our relationship, and that it's a bad thing if I go because I won't have anyone with me," Meredith hiccupped through the tears. _

"_Okay, now I agree with Nancy. My son is a brainless idiot." Carolyn said, her anger at her son rising with every moment. _

"_He's right though, everything I've got is here. My sisters are here and my family are here. Who am I to leave?" Meredith said. _

"_Honey, you want to experience new things. It's not like you're leaving and never coming back, you're obviously going to visit. My son is just being his usual self-absorbed, selfish self." Carolyn consoled the broken blonde. _

"_So you think I should still go?" Meredith asked. _

"_You definitely should go," Lizzie said, offering her first input to the conversation. _

"_And you won't hate me if I do?" The upset blonde asked; needing all the reassurance she could get. _

"_Mer, you're my sister. How could I ever hate you?" Lexie said. _

"_Lots of ways; I'm an easy person to hate," Meredith said. _

"_Stop that, okay? Now, you go upstairs. The others and I are going to have a very long conversation with my brainless son." Carolyn said sternly, and reached over to dry the tears that had fell from Meredith's eyes before standing up with the other Shepherd women, Mark and Lexie. _

"_Thank you," Meredith whispered, before walking up the stairs of the house and leaving behind seven very pissed off people. _

_And little did Meredith know; the seven very pissed off people made their point._

* * *

**A/N: I decided that Nancy would be Sadie within this, but only with the 'Death and Die' nicknames though, Nancy is still the OB that she is in the show. Hope you liked everything in this chapter. Please review**


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